Glenn Close

No love for Glenn?

I LOVE GLENN !!!!

Forget Glenn, Jessica Lange is who I think is due for a feature film comeback.

She got TERRIBLE reviews for Death and The Maiden yet somehow won a Tony. Frank Rich's review of that production is HILARIOUS.

Patty Duke!!

Great on DAMAGES.

I'm sorry but she's a total ham. I saw a couple of her "lesser" films not a long time ago, Paradise Road and South Pacific and she was dreadful in both. Glenn can act "normal" she always has to overact everything.

I love her. She's probably the most versatile actress working today. Think about the range:

Out of Africa

Kramer vs Kramer

Prairie Home Companion

Devil Wears Prada

Mamma Mia!

Julie & Julia

She's truly amazing.

Both Glenn & Jessica r3. Actually Glenn was supposed to be the one doing Therese Raquin and Jessica eventually got the part, but I still don't know why/how. I adore them both.

R8, you're such the shit stirrer!

I prefer a little distance, myself.

Fabulous in Cookie's Fortune.

Fatal Attraction is such a ridiculous film, yet it's treated seriously in interviews and documentaries.

She just never got the roles. Meryl hoovers up all of the obvious ones, and the rest of the good female performances matched with great roles are by either luck, in a foreign language, or an age range Meryl can't do anymore.

If M could have blacked up, she'd have taken Viola Davis' role in The Help.

IMHO: Cherry Jones deserves more film work than Glenn. But no one deserves a quality role in a film more than Patty Duke.

With that being said...

Glenn can still bring it no differently than Jessica Lange. Why does Meryl get every single last film role for ladies past 45 or so anyway? I respect Meryl, but am almost tired of her at this point.

Lange has too many tics, IMO. Glenn is wonderful. If it becomes a long-running joke that you deserve a damn Oscar, you've done a really good job over the years.

op=Patti Lupone

Get over it already Pats.....you sucked, accept it!!

ITA, R8.

No one deserves a big screen comeback more than Sigourney Weaver.

And it would have been nice had Karen Allen's comeback in INDIANA JONES led to more big screen exposure.

I like Meryl, but I'm frankly sick of her at this point. And I do agree that she's been hogging most of the roles for women of a certain age. Frankly, many of those roles could have been played just as well if not better with other actresses.

Here here, R13. I'd rather see more Jessica Lange, or better yet, Kathy Bates.

Diane Keaton seems to have given up on ever doing some actual acting again. Beginning with the Godfather part 3 she's been showing up in everything looking like she's just been to a museum opening.

Oh, and more dramatic challenging roles for Bette Midler please. I was pissed when she dropped out of the Phil Spector movie.

Really looking forward to the Whatever Happened to Baby Jane remake with Meryl. What an event it will be!

bump

Here's a clip comparing Mitzi Gaynor's Nellie Forbush with Glenn's.

Mitzi is as light as a souffle; Glenn is as buoyant as a paper weight.

Not a huge fan of the fourth Indiana Jones movie, but it was nice to see them bring back Karen Allen and have Harrison Ford with someone who was not 30 years old. Plus, she was the best female co-star from the original three movies (Mrs. Spieldberg really lowers Temple of Doom down a level or two).

You said it R22 She also aged really well. I'd love to see her pop up in something else.

R17, Sigourney Weaver looks dreary in that TV thing Political Animals and she's always been stiff as a board in feature film dramas. She's been OK in comedies but that's it. She was a damp squib.

I think Glenn Close is a wonderful actress and deserved the Oscar more than once (Garp--Lange beat her out as much as a consolation prize for Frances and the role was more the leading lady in the film; Dangerous Liaisons--in retrospect, Foster got it for slumming). I certainly think she was better in Fatal Attraction (though I hate the film in many ways) than Cher--though Streep, Hunter, and Kirkland were also all formidable competition--so we give to the beloved Cher for a droll, but hardly challenging role, in which she allows her hair to be given gray highlights! I think had she won the Oscar early or mid-career, the trajectory of roles might have been different. Sad that awards play such roles--but they sometimes do. Who knows? I loved her in Albert Nobbs, but it was a miniature of observation, not even as flashy as Janet McTeer's robust, great performance in the same film.

I've seen enough of Sigourney too. And if Karen Allen were all that, I don't think she would've fallen off the radar so quickly and completely. If she has anything special, she can make a big splash on tv to prove her worth, then be considered for a comeback. It hasn't happened and I don't think it will.

What "we," R25? Are you a member of the Academy? And, FFS, stop dogging Jessica Lange's performance in Tootsie already. There was a brilliance to what she did - she anchored Hoffman's performance and was light, lovely and at the same time, conflicted. Surely people know enough about Lange by now not to assume that she's actually flaky like Julie in Tootsie. It's annoying when people assume that something that looks easy doesn't require any skill or talent. FFS, she deserved her Oscar just for keeping a straight face!

Glenn Close only truly deserved the Oscar for Dangerous Liasons. She had several supporting nominations behind her and a huge box office smash with her nominated performance from Fatal Attraction the year before...if there was ever going to be a time...and they passed her over and gave it to Foster. I think Glenn and everyone else knew her time had passed, which was borne out by the long 23 year stretch she had to wait for another nomination. Her chances are limited.

[quote]I know we joke about her alot(sic) here

Prior to the Glen/M "jokes" I always thought jokes were supposed to be funny.

The film itself wasn't perfect but Glenn deserved at least a nomination for The Safety Of Objects, as did Patricia Clarkson.

Glenn is a great actress, and she's worked consistently in the theatre, tv and movies, in both leading and supporting roles, she;s respected by her peers and by the public in general.

She should have at least one Oscar but I feel sorry for her.

Oooops a daisy.

That should read "She should have at least one Oscar but I don't feel sorry for her because she's had a career most actresses of any age would kill for, and have killed for and still haven't gotten."

I saw a clip of M on Andy Cohen's show sometime in the last week, and she was subjected to some exercise where Andy threw out the names of celebrities, and she had to come back with her immediate reaction to them.

When Glenn came up, M's response was something like "my pal" or "my buddy." Probably means I've spent too long here, but it surprised the hell out of me.

I thought she was great in Reversal of Fortune, Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons. She's a solid, sometimes great actress, never really bad.

I should add that I'm talking about Glenn in film/television. Never seen her on stage.

Reversal of Fortune

Fatal Attraction

Hell, even The Big Chill

She's a very good actress. I love her!

I hate that bitch!

R31? Here ya go.

I never cared for her. The mannerisms in "The Big Chill" are what bring her down for me: a self-absorbed, self-aware persona that pretends to be giving and collaborative, but I rarely see her seeming to connect with other actors. I understand it's all effect and affect, but for me it's not there.

With that said, when her considerable technical skills are matched by the material, she can be breathtaking. "Fatal Attraction" is utter crap but she offers a film-history-worthy performance. And her greatest role, in "Dangerous Liaisons," shows her capabilities to perfection. For even there it is the pretense of connecting that makes it all work.

Glen was fabulous in Barum. Saw that show so many times, but I had to remember she was a member of "Up With the People".

[quote]Glen was fabulous in Barum.

Yes, "Barum" was a fabulous show. I can't remember if the star was Neil Young or Neil Armstrong.

It's bad enough people are subjected to Lange's cat face and drunken mannerisms on television. Let's not amplify that on the big screen.

I'll never stop bumping this thread!

I'd love to have seen her play Stella in Streetcar at the McCarter in Princeton (Shirley Knight was Blanche). She was a perfectly cast Stella. I doubt she was a good Blanche, though (she played her in London).

R37, see that South Pacific clip for further evidence of this. Meryl never looked like that in Mamma Mia!

She didn't get great reviews for her Blanche at the NT. Iain Glen was her Stanley.

[quote]Great on DAMAGES.

She gives such a strange performance in that series. Just to introduce an element of mystery, every once in a while she rises out of her stupor of closed slit eyes and invisible neck brace and pregnant pause and sly smile and does a passable, even good snippet of acting. But not often.

She can be good, even quite good in roles that wouldn't seem to offer much opportunity for distinction, but often she overdoes by a long shot.

[quote]I know we joke about her alot here,

But the jokes are not even mildly amusing. Several years ago there was some very funny stuff. Now it's like something posted by a child who just learned a new word and won't shut up.

Does anyone else think that "hosting" gig she did at the Oscars a few years back with Peter Coyote hurt her credibility?

"Sigourney Weaver looks dreary in that TV thing Political Animals and she's always been stiff as a board in feature film dramas."

Have to disagree with you here. Haven't seen POLITICAL ANIMALS, but Weaver has been terrific in the films ICE STORM (she won a BAFTA award for that, and should have had an Oscar nom), IMAGINARY HEROES, A MAP OF THE WORLD (until the film goes haywire in the last 30 minutes - no one could have saved that part),the thriller COPYCAT, and the ALIEN films.

I'm mixed about her in the film version of DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (it tended toward the one-note), but Close wasn't much better in the stage version. There were some admirable aspects to her performance as an austistic person in SNOW CAKE, but the script was awful.

She can be delicious in comedy as we know from WORKING GIRL and HEARTBREAKERS.

Yes, she's had some less good performances, but so do most actors.

She looked just like Robin Williams in Albert Nobbs-which only proves what a genius the casting director of Garp was.

She was good in the remake of The Lion in Winter.

Damages is too expensive to produce because every season they have to replace the sets that she's gnawed on.

Should have won the Oscar for "Fatal Attraction". She burns a hole through the screen while also showing the deeply sad soul of a person. To take a potentially one-dimensional monster and carve out a full person while still giving a mainstream audience a thrill is a fool's errand that she knocked out of the park. A majorly deep performance, one of the central characters of 80's cinema and still part of pop culture. I love Cher, but come on. Watch her try to make up to Douglas with the opera ticket "peace offering" scene. She goes through the whole emotional spectrum with total authenticity. She's actually more one-note in Liasons, the more artsy, cerebral movie.

bump

I love her.

R50 So NOT good. Horrible and so bad. Hepburn gave a master class of acting. Glenn was nowhere near.

[quote]Hepburn gave a master class of acting.

A master class of bad acting.

Hepburn was an awful actress.

Love here , a real class act and super nice lady

Love her I meant

R56 She won an Oscar for her acting in the role! So bad.

[quote]She won an Oscar for her acting in the role! So bad.

Yes, she did. And, yes, it was.

Hepburn was good in the bitchy, comic parts of LION, but when she starts with the waterworks it goes downhill fast - she acts like she's doing grand tragedy, and LION IN WINTER is just a clever, backstabbing comedy set in the 12th Century. Art it ain't.

Unfortunately, the Academy took her Grande Dame act as seriously as she did and gave her an Oscar.

The only movie from her later career where she gave a truly Oscar-caliber performance was in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT. If she had tied with Anne Bancroft for MIRACLE WORKER (instead of with Streisand in '68) it would have been just fine.

Glenn is very good, but she has a limited range--nothing like Streep's (although both women like to ham it up a bit too much). Doing Albert Nobbs was a mistake: she was too subdued and stiff in the role.

She is excellent in roles when she could play the grand bitch (like the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons--she should have won the Oscar for that) or the scary loon (like Sunset Boulevard--she was excellent as an actress in that, but her voice wasn't quite up to the part).

Generally agree, R62. Really good in Reversal of Fortune as well, and Damages (I know, it's TV, but still). Quite bitchy in both.

Fatal Attraction is ridiculous, but she was great in that role.

Dan, I will not be ignored.

[all posts by tedious troll removed.]

Close can do comedy .. 101 Dalmatians, Maxie, which La Streep cannot do ... Heartburn, Defending Your Life

[quote]Glenn is very good, but she has a limited range--nothing like Streep's (although both women like to ham it up a bit too much).

Yes. When it comes to ham neither of them come close to Jessica Lange - a far inferior actress. Glenn is good at playing psycho bitches (that's not an insult).

[quote]Close can do comedy .. 101 Dalmatians, Maxie, which La Streep cannot do ... Heartburn, Defending Your Life

Streep most definitely can do comedy! Most of her comedy films are duds though.

Meryl was amazingly funny in "She-Devil" and "Death Becomes Her", but those films aren't very good. Although, they're better than 101 Dalmatians.

Joan Collins should have played Cruella de Vil.

Let's not forget Heights, in which she plays someone not entirely unlike herself.

Great movie about New York.

Her voice wasn't quite up to the part r62? You do like understatement don't you?

Fatal Attraction is high camp. Close deserves only derision for that performance.

I always thought "Reversal of Fortune" was far and away her best screen performance.

Loved her in Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons.

Jessica Lange is never coming back as film star. Audiences were never into her, and most never see her FX show.

And yes, Reversal of Fortune. Very good.

R15 I am not Patti LuPone and I DID NOT SUCK!

I loved her in Maxie.

I think she's a brilliant actress and I love her.

[quote]Then she did that Julie Andrews impression in "South Pacific",

I always think of that as "South Pacific" starring shirtless Harry Connick Jr.

My mom always referred to the movie as GLENGARRY GLENN CLOSE. No matter how many times I corrected her.

I wish M would use some of her Hollywood clout to greenlight an older demo female headlined film. First Wives Club style. M, Lange, Close, Weaver, Sarandon, Mirren, etc. Would be a gay event. Can you imagine. The old men do it all the time (Grumpy Old Men, Last Vegas, Space Cowboys, etc.)

She plays a great crazy bitch. That's about it.

I always wished they would do a good remake of The Women, with Streep and Jodie Foster years ago, but then they ruined it with Meg Ryan. I know at one time they pitched a network kind of movie with Cameron Diaz and Meryl as rivals at a television network, and it sounded good. Oh, and Jared Leto said he would do a rom-com with Streep. Not sure what Glenn is up to but she is pretty fantastic given the right opportunity.

[quote]Oh, and Jared Leto said he would do a rom-com with Streep.

Stupidest (and grossest) idea ever! I can't see those two as lovers.

Why not? He's a hot man and she's a hot woman. I can't believe how small minded people are here.

"I always wished they would do a good remake of The Women, with Streep and Jodie Foster years ago"

Are you picturing Foster in the sexy Crawford part??

Yes.

R85 Foster would be better in the Marjorie Main or Mary Nash roles--either the homely rancher or the crypto-dyke.

I like Close a lot--I remember seeing her in Barnum and thinking she deserved the Tony so much more than Priscilla Lopez, who got it as a consolation for not winning for A Chorus Line. I think Close's performances are always intelligent and often quite moving, and more varied than people give her credit for. Yes, she was the monstrous Alex, but she also was the no-nonsense Jenny Garp, the timid Albert Nobbs, the wonderfully witty and evil Marquise, and, most heartbreaking for me, the mother in the cable film, "In the Gloaming," where her scenes with Robert Sean Leonard just felt so real--the sense of impending loss. She reminded me of so many upper-class mothers of men with AIDS who were tested in ways they never imagined they would be.

An actress with this range is great in my books.

[quote]r80 I wish M would use some of her Hollywood clout to greenlight an older demo female headlined film. First Wives Club style. M, Lange, Close, Weaver, Sarandon, Mirren, etc.

They could call it "Old cunts: powerful, beautiful, nurturing and honest."

I've never seen this SNL sketch where she plays Alex from Fatal Attraction. She's very funny.

Aired 02/25/89

So many actors I like better. Really overrated and difficult to watch.

I’ve seen Close on stage twice, in the Tom Stoppard play, “The Real Thing,” opposite Jeremy Irons, which was wonderful, and in “Sunset Boulevard,” in a Sunday matinee, on Jan. 9, 1994, in L. A.

As she was progressing down that golden stsircase near the beginning, there was an earthquake that rocked the theater. The whole place went dead silent, and Close backed up flat against the wall. Then everyone started talking at once. But Close, pro that she is, went right on with the scene, and shut everyone up.

(A week later, the Northridge earthquake struck, with billions in damages.)

In “Sunset” she really made you accept her more bizarre interpretation on her terms, weak voice and all. And she pulled it off. Despite the fact that the musical version takes few risks, and is really the movie script with songs, she rose above the material. That takes talent and skill, especially in a monolith of a show like that.

I saw Close today. Walking her dog by the Public Theatre. She must have been on her way to a rehearsal. Discussed dogs with her once. She knows her stuff.

Wow, she was great in that SNL clip, R91! Kind of sad how far SNL's writing has fallen over the past decades.

Yeah. Close desperately hoping for the Oscar. If she doesn't win her career essentially over: she is old and uninteresting and her best days and long behind her. I'm curious how this shakes out. Her PR team in overdrive hoping to make something happen. She will never get my vote.

R96 I very much doubt you have a vote. What nonsense, Glenn's career is solid, Oscar or not.

R94 did you find her friendly when you talked? Are you going to see her in the play, "Mother of the Maid"?

R93 I love hearing that recount of yours. Remember when someone parked with you that it wasn't an earthquake, it was Rosie O'Donnell running up a hit, while shooting The Flintstones?! Lol

Sorry that was meant to be larked with you and running up a hill!

r97 I definitely have vote

I hope takes her new play to Broadway and gets another Tony! her last win was 23 years ago

R99 What you don't seem to have is literacy.

i love her and she deserved the oscar more than once. and let's be honest: only a very talented actress could have had such a long career with such a "peculiar" face.

Her daughter is very pretty and did a good job in The Wife as the younger version of Glenn. I feel slightly suicidal saying that. No one will ever say that about my brood.

For this reason alone, Glenn is my hero. Dayum!

She needs to reveal to the world that she is a man.

I thought she was great in The Big Chill in 1983 and should have won over Linda Hunt playing a man!

R106 I love Close, but I would not have given her the Oscar that year over Linda Hunt. I thought it was odd that Close alone was nominated from The Big Chill--perhaps for the nude crying scene in the shower.

I hope she wins this time around.

Glenn will win

I'm watching Damages, I've just finished Season 2. Glenn disturbs the shit out of me in this show. She goes from "kind and sympathetic" in that HR kind of way to sadistically angry and furious in seconds. She's the kind of boss that makes you have nightmares. She's a great actress.

My fave performances are "The World According to Garp" and "Fatal Attraction". "The Wife" was just crap, and she couldn't do much with the role.